Fast Break: Churros

Churros. Cinnamon. Chocolate. Donut. Street food. All the good things wrapped into one delicious experience. To many Americans churros means summer festivals and food trucks, a sweet treat in the middle of the day, complete with thick chocolate dipping sauce. The breadstick shaped donut is finger food to the core. But churros have many incarnations, including being stuffed with chocolate, fresh fruit, or dulce de leche.
The donut delicacy is thought to be invented by Spanish shepherds up in the mountains. Cooking is hard up there, and especially baking bread. And sometimes you just need that sweet fix. They discovered rolling dough into breadstick like shapes and frying them in the pan gave them the perfect snack. Dust that with cinnamon sugar and voilá, you have the churro. The perfect working-man’s breakfast or a mid-afternoon sugary pick-me up, in Spain you can still get churros and good cup of hot chocolate so thick the churro will stand up straight in it.
 


 

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The name comes from churra sheep, whose horns vaguely resemble the snack food. Some believe churros came from China. The Portuguese brought back the youtiao, a breakfast food that was fried pastry dough shaped like sticks. Though the youtiao was salted, the Portuguese dusted it with sugar instead, thus creating the donut we know and love.
In the invasion of the Americas churros were introduced to Latin America and became a staple of snack diet there as well. Soft on the inside and golden crispy on the outside, there’s no wonder this snack really took off in Latin America and now in the United States.
There’s also really no wonder why at Sunny Street Café we decided to make a churro-inspired French Toast for breakfast. Flash fried and dusted with cinnamon sugar, it’s topped with tres leches drizzle and strawberries and a side of chocolate dipping sauce. The best of everything on one plate, for a limited time only.

-Anna Hetzel, Content Marketer